Fans slow to embrace Colorado State's recent success

Jan. 18, 2014

There were plenty of empty seats at Hughes Stadium during the CSU football team's regular-season finale against Air Force, which drew just 15,546 fans to the 32,500-seat stadium despite the fact the Rams were playing for the right to advance to a bowl game for the first time since 2008. / Hunter Thompson/For the Coloradoan

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CSU fans have been slow to jump on the bandwagon and quick to leap off of it in recent years.

No better proof exists than the average attendance numbers this season for the Rams’ football and men’s basketball programs.

The football team, which posted its first eight-win season since 2002 and played its way into a bowl game for the first time since 2008, drew an average of just 18,600 — a 42-year low — for its six home games at Hughes Stadium.

And the Rams’ men’s basketball team, coming off its first back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances since 1989-90, is averaging just 4,010 fans for its home games at Moby Arena after drawing an average of 5,440 and selling out the 8,745-seat arena four times last season. Last year’s average was boosted significantly by those sellouts, and this year’s should start rising, too, when students return this week from a five-week holiday break.

Fans this week provided a number of reasons for their fickle interest in Colorado State University’s athletic programs, with many suggesting the quality of opponents is the biggest issue.

“”Frankly, the MW isn’t very attractive anymore, and our conference rivals, Wyo(ming) and Air Force, have been down in all sports,” John Hintzman said through Facebook. “How I wish we had BYU, Utah and TCU instead of San Jose, Utah State and Nevada.”

Doug Hay, through his Facebook account, added: “CSU does not play opponents that I have any interest in or that have a national name. My friends who are CSU fans get upset with me, but the talent level of the CSU opponents is not even close to the talent level of CU opponents, now or when CU was in the Big 12. I’d much rather watch USC, UCLA, Stanford, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas beat up my Buffs than Wyoming, Air Force and New Mexico play a close game against CSU. For me, it’s that simple.”

Others blamed the Rams’ attendance struggles in football to the controversy surrounding the proposed on-campus stadium, with some saying a new stadium will draw more fans and others saying fans opposed to the new stadium are staying away from Hughes in protest.

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Competition from the Denver Broncos was a factor for some, too.

“Perhaps most Coloradans aren’t willing to give over their ‘entire’ weekend to watching football, and the Broncos are already pretty entrenched on Sunday,” Ryan Will said through Facebook.

Added @SJCSouthpaw on Twitter: “Fans will arrange their weekend around a game, not multiple games.”

One fan suggested the problem lies with a transient population, noting that many of the residents in the region didn’t grow up in Colorado or attend one of the state’s universities.

“Their college loyalties lie with their alma maters ‘back home’ instead of CU or CSU,” G. David Sherman said through Facebook.

Others suggested people in Fort Collins are simply too busy with their families and other interests to make time to attend CSU games on a regular basis.

Whatever the reasons, it’s clear it will take more than short-term success for CSU programs to win back their fans. Athletic director Jack Graham knows it and said as much, noting earlier this fall that the Rams hadn’t had a winning regular season in football in a decade. During that time, attendance fell steadily from an average of 30,631 in 2003 to its current level.

Rebuilding a college football program, Graham said, is “a three- to five-year process” and he’s pleased with the progress that’s been made in coach Jim McElwain’s first two years.

Rams fans have shown throughout the years that they’ll support programs while they’re winning. The CSU volleyball program, which has played in the NCAA tournament 19 years in a row and regularly is ranked among the nation’s Top 25 teams, was seventh in the nation in average home attendance this season at 3,283 and has been among the top 22 in home attendance every year since 1999.

And the football program drew an average of 31,224 fans to Hughes for home games during a 10-2 season in 1994 and also topped the 30,000-mark during 10-4 seasons in 2002 and a 7-6 season in 2003.

CSU men’s basketball games drew an average of 6,249 fans during a 22-13 season under first-year coach Boyd Grant in 1987-88, then drew more than 8,000 each of the next three seasons, reaching a peak of 8,509 during a 21-9 season in 1989-90.

Larry Eustachy guided a CSU team with five senior starters into the third round of the NCAA tournament last year in his first season as the Rams’ coach. This year’s team is 12-7 overall and 3-3 in the MW after beating Air Force Saturday at Moby Arena before a crowd of 4,296.

Success still is the surest way to fill the stands.

“The wins will come back, and so will the fans,’’ Tyler Shannon said through Facebook.